Fraction Tools

Many students are scared of fractions because of how confusing they could be.  Some of them even have a hard time identifying that a 1/4 is smaller than a 1/3.  Fortunately, there are many tools that teachers could use to simplify this concept.  The most important thing, however, is not to tell the students that they will be learning about fractions at first.

Some of the most popular tools that a teacher could use when teaching fractions are:

1) Pizza - of course, one of the yummiest ways of learning about fractions is to bake a pizza for the students and cut it into pieces to illustrate the basic ideas of this concept.

2) Virtual manipulatives - if a computer is accessible at the school, there are many virtual manipulatives that could be used, and most of them are vey powerful to make matters easy and enjoyable.

3) Fraction disks - students are able to do so many activities with these colourful disks.  They show fractions as wholes, halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, eighths, nineths, and tenths.  These are perfect for group activities.

4) Fraction wheels - these wheels usually go up to 1/10 and are perfect for students working on individual activities.

5) Fraction sets - sets of different fraction of rectangle and square are put together for the students to feel what different fractions look like and why equivalent fractions are the same.

6) Fraction bars - these manipulatives are solid tiles that represent a whole, halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, eights, tenths, and twelfths.  These are perfect for teaching the students the difference between nominators and denominators.

In conclusion, fractions could be scary and confusing only if we allow them to be so.  With all the different tools available, teaching and learning fractions could be lots of fun for teachers and students, respectively.